Ring die wafferer



Jan. 30, 1968 I J.W. RANE 3,366,078

RING DIE WAFERER Filed Sept. 12, 1966 INVENTOR. JACK W. CRANE BY ATTORNEX United States Patent Rand Corporation, New Holland, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 12, 1966, Ser. No. 578,592 Claims. (Cl. 107-14) The present invention relates generally to machines for watering hay and other forage crops. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved ring die waferer.

In a ring die waferer, conventionally a large die annulus is provided having uniformly angularly spaced die cells which extend from an inner periphery of the die ring to an outer periphery thereof. Hay or other forage crops are fed into the die ring using an auger or other conveying means. A compression roller is employed in rolling relation to the inside periphery of the ring and it serves to force or extrude hay radially outwardly through the die cells.

In the wafering of hay, it has been found that after crop material has been forced into a die cell, there must be short hold time on the extruded material before it is released. Otherwise, the material will spring back from the die cells into which it has been forced. Up to now, this problem has been overcome to a limited extent by the use of a compression roller having a large diameter relative to the inside diameter of the die annulus. The roller thus has a substantial segment almost concentric to the portion of the die ring with which it is cooperating, thereby providing a time factor when the roller is blocking a series of successive die cells. Further, the roller and the infeed of material are operated at a relatively slow speed, the speed being such that there is a sufficient hold on the material after it has been forced into the die cells to allow it to set. The difficulty with this arrangement is that the capacity of such a wafering machine is limited by its slow operating speed requirement. This problem may not be resolved by running the machine faster because the roller then passes over the die cells too rapidly and adequate hold time is not provided.

A main object of this invention is to provide a ring die waferer which can be operated at much faster speeds and thus with much higher volumes than similar waferers of prior design.

Another object of this invention is to provide a ring die waferer in which the compression roller is relegated merely to the task of forcing crop material into the die cells and is not used to hold the material in the die cells after it has been forced therein.

Another object of this invention is to provide a ring die waferer of the character described having structural components which may be readily removed when subjected to wear so that the operating efficiency of the machine may be maintained simply and at relatively low cost.

Another object of this invention is to provide a ring die waferer which will have a round product rather than a rectangular product.

A further object of this invention is to provide a ring die waferer of the character described which will produce wa-fers having better fiowability and handleability in relation to hay wafers of prior machines.

Other objects of this invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary axial view of a ring die waferer constructed according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the die ring looking radially outwardly from the inside of the ring, substantially on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged section taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows; this View is oriented in a horizontal plane; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the hay wafer formed by the device.

Referringnow to the drawing by numerals of reference, 10 denotes generally a die annulus having an inner periphery 11, an outer periphery 12 and side walls 14 and 15. The axis of the die annulus is shownat 1-6 in FIG. 1. Hay or other unground, fibrous crop material is fed to the interior of the die ring along the axis thereof past the side 14 of the ring and toward side 15. A back closure wall 18 is provided to block the material once it has been admitted to the die annulus.

The body of die annulus 10 has a plurality of uniformly angularly spaced radial die cells 20 having inlet ends 21 communicating with the inner periphery 11 of the die and outlet ends 22 at the outer periphery 12. For forcing crop material into the die cells and radially outwardly of the die annulus, a compression roller 24 is provided which orbits on an eccentric axis 25 relative to the axis of the die 10. As shown in FIG. 1, roller 24 has a diameter greater than the inside radius of the die annulus. Further, the inner periphery 11 is radially outwardly of the inside edge 26 of wall 14 whereby an annular track or recess is formed into which roller 24 projects as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.

Die cells 22 are generally cylindrical and formed by drilling radial openings in the die. A slight taper onthe die cells may be provided with the outer ends 22 slightly longer than the inner ends 21. Preferably the cells are about an eighth of an inch apart whereby only small wall spaces 28 are formed between the successive die cells.

Overlying the inner ends 21 of the die cells are rings 30 and 31 which are spaced relative to each other along the axis of the die annulus and located adjacent the inner periphery 11 of the die. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the rings 3031 are spaced close enough together that they extend over sections 32 and 33 of each die cell and form shoulders 35 and 36 across the inner ends 21 of the cells. Further, a recess 39 is machined into the inner periphery 11 of the die ring to accommodate roller 24 so that the roller will push material radially outwardly beyond shoulders 35 and 36.

The rings 30 and 31 are formed of arcuate sections, as best shown in FIG. 1 detachably connected to the sides 14 and 15 of the die ring by connecting bolts 38. When a ring 3031 becomes worn, it can be removed and replaced; or if a segment only becomes damaged or worn it can be replaced.

As shown in FIG. 3, the inside surface of the wall 18 of the die annulus is co-planar with the inside radial wall of ring 31. Therefore, when the roller 24 operates to force crop material into the die cells, there is a shearing action along the ring 30 but not along ring 31. There is also shearing of the material as it passes the intermediate sections 28 between the die cells.

With the structure described, the roller 24 extrudes crop material radially between the rings 30 and 31 and into the cylindrical die cells 20. After the material passes the rings 3031, it expands due to its fluid nature and wholly fills the cross-section of the cylindrical die cells 20. When the material expands, it becomes lodged behind the shoulders 35 and 36 and inward radial movement of the material is prevented after it enters the die cells. The rings 30-31 thus serve to provide hold time for the pellets and to prevent them from retrogressive movement out of the die cells after the crop material has been forced therein. In this arrangement, the roller 24 is generally relegated to forcing crop material into the die cells. Since its function is not to also provide hold time, the roller may be operated at high speed. Therefore, the

device may be operated at much faster speeds than conventional ring die wafers of prior design. It will have increased capacity commensurate with the increased speed.

Further, by the introduction of overlying rings 30-61, large dead space areas between the die cell openings are blocked off and the amount of shearing of material when it is extruded into the cells is substantially reduced. The shearing area involved is in the range of that provided when rectangular die openings are employed.

When the crop material is first forced radially outwardly of the die annulus, it passes through an opening (FIG. 2) which has two sides which are parallel and two ends which are arcuate. However, due to the flow of material after it enters the die, the wafer then formed is cylindrical in cross-section and it emerges as a pellet as shown in FIG. 4. Such a pellet shape has greater flowability and handleability than rectangular pellets and When placed in a container, it will provide a greater bulk density. Therefore, a larger tonnage of wafers may be stored in a smaller area and they will flow easier when they are discharged from the storage container for feeding or other handling. Also, because of the cylindrical shape of the wafers, there are less fines and material loss when the crop material is formed into wafers.

It has been found that a diameter of wafer in the range of about 1% is best both from a feeding and handling standpoint. However, other diameters could be employed. Further, with the die cell openings being cylindrical, tubular extensions may be easily applied to the die cells to vary the lengths of the die cells and to accommodate various types of crop material.

While this invention has been described in connection with a particular embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is capable of modification, and this application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations following, in general, the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains, and as fall within the scope of the invention or the limits of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops comprising a die annulus having inner and outer peripheries and a plurality of generally radial angularly spaced die cells opening at opposite ends respectively to said peripheries, means operating in rolling relation to one of said peripheries to force hay and the like into said die cells for extrusion through the cells and exit at the cell ends at the other periphery, and annular means mounted along said one periphery and overlying a portion of each of said die cells whereby the inlet to each die cell has an area less than the cross section of the cell so that when crop material is forced into the cell it may expand, retrogressive movement of the material back out through said inlet being retarded by said annular means.

2. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 1 wherein said annular means comprises a pair of axially spaced annular rings which form a pair of shoulders at each die cell along said one pe riphery.

3. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 2 wherein at least one of said annular rings provides a shearing edge for the hay or other crop material, said rings being detachably connected to said die annulus for removal and replacement for wear.

4. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 3 wherein said rings comprise arcuate sections, individually replaceable.

5. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 2 wherein said rolling means operates in relation to said inner periphery, said inner periphery having an annular recess which projects radially outwardly thereof and into which the rolling means projects.

6. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 5 wherein said rolling means projects radially outwardly of said pair of shoulders.

7. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 2 wherein the material to be wafered is admitted axially from one side of the die and a closure plate is provided along the opposite side of the die, said closure plate and one of said annular rings being coplanar.

8. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 1 wherein said die cells are cylindrical.

9. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 8 wherein each of said die inlets has two parallel sides and two ends which are arcuate and concentric.

10. A device for wafering hay and like forage crops as recited in claim 8 wherein the outlet ends of the die cells are larger than the inlet ends.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,059,486 11/1936 Payne et a1. 1078 3,129,458 4/1964 Mitchell l8-12 3,199,465 8/1965 Cunningham 10714 3,030,876 4/1962 Searles 98 BILLY J. WILHITE, Primary Examiner, 

1. A DEVICE FOR WAFERING HAY AND LIKE FORAGE CROPS COMPRISING A DIE ANNULUS HAVING INNER AND OUTER PERIPHERIES AND A PLURALITY OF GENERALLY RAIDIALLY ANGULARLY SPACED DIE CELLS OPENING AT OPPOSITE ENDS RESPECTIVELY TO SAID PERIPHERIES, MEANS OPERATING IN ROLLING RELATION TO ONE OF SAID PERIPHERIES TO FORCE HAY AND THE LIKE INTO SAID DIE CELLS FOR EXTRUSION THROUGH THE CELLS AND EXIT AT THE CELL ENDS AT THE OTHER PERIPHERY AND ANNULAR MEANS MOUNTED ALONG SAID ONE PERIPHERY AND OVERLYING A PORTION OF EACH OF SAID DIE CELLS WHEREBY THE INLET TO EACH DIE CELL HAS AN AREA LESS THAN THE CROSS SECTION OF THE CELL SO THAT WHEN CROP MATERIAL IS FORCED INTO THE CELL IT MAY EXPAND, RETROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT OF THE MATERIAL BACK OUT THROUGH SAID INLET BEING RETARDED BY SAID ANNULAR MEANS. 